


Conversing Over Hot Chocolate.

by NoelleWynters



Series: A Sense of Home. [11]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-27
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2018-01-17 06:08:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1376683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoelleWynters/pseuds/NoelleWynters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma was not in the mood to eat alone for once, and happily came across a familiar face she always enjoyed spending time with on her way to the diner.  There is nothing like a slightly random conversation over lunch and hot chocolate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conversing Over Hot Chocolate.

**Author's Note:**

> Standard disclaimer applies: I own nothing, this is all for fun.

Emma Swan walked through town, huddling a bit further into her winter coat as another cold wind blew in off the ocean. It didn’t seem to matter where you were in town, that wind could find you without much trouble to remind you winter was not leaving in the near future.

Although soon she’d be leaving, as it turned out, that is if they could ever nail down Will Scarlet and make solid plans on this trip. The very thought of having one’s heart ripped out was still something she was wrapping her mind around, but the concept he had willing had it done was mind boggling.

Of course, the onetime she’d asked about it he’d found at least half a dozen ways to justify it, all of which she’d called him on. Sure, being empty was appealing when you’re in some sort of emotional pain, but it was part of life. You couldn’t run from it, or at least she thought you couldn’t until she’d learned magic was real and ripping people’s hearts from their chest was a very legitimate past time.

Either way, after listening to him ramble she’d finally told him he was possibly the most emotionally unstable person she’d ever met and he’d told her to sod off. There wasn’t a lot of love lost between the two, while under the curse he’d caused her enough grief with his constant petty thefts around Storybrooke, when the curse had broke and he’d vanished shortly thereafter she wasn’t too concerned. Emma really didn’t want to know if his thieving ways were a vocation for his true self.

As she turned the corner a smile lit up her face. She’d been heading to Granny’s for some lunch, and hadn’t desired to eat alone but couldn’t think of anyone free to have lunch with. Neal was busy as his father had decided he could start helping around the pawn shop, Alice had begun working with Belle at the library and Cyrus seemed to have his time divided between the two places. But today seemed to be a free day for the genie, as he was walking down the street towards her, seemingly with nowhere to be.

“Hey Cyrus, you got plans?” she asked, to which he shook his head. She walked over and hooked her arm around one of his and started leading him towards the diner, laughing at his somewhat confused expression. “I hate eating alone, so I’m taking you for lunch with me.”

A few minutes later they walked into the diner, leaving the bitter cold behind for awhile. Emma frowned when she realized it was rather busy, but she should have figured at lunch hour it would be. There were no tables free, only one booth and a single spot at the counter.

That really wasn’t ideal, as she’d begun to notice Cyrus had issues with being closed in, and even though a booth hardly qualified she had noted he always fidgeted with something when they sat in a booth over a table or at the counter. She’d just accosted him and dragged him to the diner for lunch, whether he liked it or not, it didn’t seem right to make him sit somewhere he was uncomfortable.

She scanned the area, grinning a bit. She knew Cyrus would say it was fine, they could sit in the only available spot, but that wasn’t happening. She walked over to Grumpy and Happy, who were seated at a small table, Cyrus trailing behind. She knew the dwarf was good friends with the genie, and was strangely protective of him. If Grumpy thought his friend was uncomfortable or in trouble, he’d do anything for him. She had to admit, it was nice how loyal dwarves were.

“Hey Grumpy, how’s it going?” she asked as she stopped by the table. They’d obviously just gotten their meals, and she felt bad she was about to ask if they’d move, but it would be quicker than waiting for a spot or for Grumpy to actually notice his friend was feeling a bit out of sorts.

Grumpy looked up, a bit of a tight smile gracing his normally disagreeable features. “I’m great, be better if I could eat my lunch though.”

Cyrus caught on to what Emma was up to, and gently grabbed hold of her arm. “Its fine, we can sit over there. There is no need to make someone else move,” he softly insisted. He didn’t like those closed in tables, but if that was all there was he’d just have to deal with it. He had more than enough times before, this would be no different.

“Oh, wait, no you can have this table,” Grumpy stated, standing up and picking up his plate, utensils and cup of coffee. Happy looked at him a little oddly, and opened his mouth to protest when he was cut off. “I said we’re moving, I’m not going to make my friend sit somewhere he’s uncomfortable, so get up and move.”

Happy looked a bit baffled, he didn’t know Cyrus all that well and had no idea what had prompted this, but did as he was told. Grumpy was the one dwarf you didn’t get on the wrong side of, it was just easier to do what he wanted.

“Thanks!” Emma chirped as she shrugged off her coat and draped it over the back of the chair. Cyrus nodded his thanks to the dwarves as well, as he mimicked Emma and took off his jacket.

After a few minutes Ruby came and took their orders, Emma always marveled at how little Cyrus seemed to eat. She almost felt bad ordering a burger with fries when all he decided on was a turkey sandwich. At least he’d copied her with the hot chocolate topped with whip cream and cinnamon, she’d also silently decided he was helping her with her fries and she’d make him have dessert. He seemed to like sweets.

“Seriously, do genies not eat or something?” she asked, leaning back in her chair. “I mean, in all the time I’ve known you it seems you hardly ever eat and you’re only doing it to be social or it is expected of you when you’re with people.”

Cyrus ducked his head a bit, smiling a touch. “Genies don’t have to eat, no. I can’t truthfully speak for all though, as I was cursed and did not come into existence as one but I simply assume it is the same. It isn’t that I don’t enjoy eating, it just feels unnecessary,” he answered as Ruby returned with their drinks.

“Must be kind of nice,” Emma said, picking up her mug and taking a sip. “There are days I’d love to not need to worry about food.”

She glanced around the diner, thinking over how everything had changed in the past year and a half. Ever since Henry had shown up on her doorstep her entire life had been tossed upside down. She’d grown up hearing fairy tales, she’d gone to the cinema and seen all those animated movies about princesses, princes on white steeds to the rescue and magic but had known all of it was made up.

But here she was sitting across from a genie and having a somewhat normal conversation. If anything about the situation could be considered normal, which she doubted unless you defined the word differently from most. Which, in all truth, she figured if you were living in Storybrooke normal was a word you might as well drop from your vocabulary completely. Because nothing was normal about the town.

“So, how have things been? Haven’t ticked off Rumpel lately have you?” It was odd how at times conversation became awkward, she considered Cyrus a good friend but once in awhile it was like the disbeliever that still lingered in her couldn’t grasp the fact she was having lunch with a mythical being, and then the conversation became a little disjointed.

Cyrus shrugged, no more than usual. “I haven’t gotten into anything I shouldn’t, but I don’t think that is really what is concerning you. I know you have no trouble spending time alone; you and I are very similar in that respect. We’re both very solitary people and can thieve alone just as well as with people around, maybe a touch better alone,” he observed, looking at Emma, trying to discern what exactly she wanted to talk about. “You just want to talk to someone who understands what it is like to be alone.”

Emma pulled a bit of a face; she hated how perceptive he was at times. “Yeah well, there aren’t many around here that get it. They’ve all at least had one or two people to call close friends and I really had no one growing up. I was alone in a crowd, always with people around but they really didn’t want me all that badly. At least I had people, so to speak, but now suddenly I have a family that actually gives a damn about me. And friends, I’ve got people who want to know how my day is going and actually are interested. And to top all the strange off, I have magic.”

“I knew you had magic, I sensed it when you walked into Rumpel’s shop after Belle had released me from my bottle. That was why I retreated back to it, I had just been wished away from one bad situation and was unsure of everything, it was simpler to hide,” he told her, trying not to laugh as a look of realization washed over her face.

“That orange mist was you?” she blurted out, putting two and two together. “My magic isn’t powerful enough to make a damn genie run scared, I wouldn’t think.”

Cyrus did laugh then. “If you had spent as much time as I have running from a sorcerer, and all that was just luck that I did get away from him as I technically can’t take off on my own volition, any magic would send you into hiding. This was a very strange and new place to me, and Rumpel was less than cordial when I met him.”

“Yeah, he’s rather rough around the edges, but he does have that gooey center that eventually comes out when you get to know him. But you really gotta cut down on that mist, I nearly choked on it,” she teased, right when Ruby returned with their food.

She set the plates down, smirking a bit. “I get why he stays so thin, he hardly eats,” she commented, nodding towards Cyrus. “But you Emma, how do you do it? There are days you eat more than a dwarf I’m sure.”

“We’ve all got our little trade secrets, and that is one I’ll never share,” Emma teased just as Granny shouted at Ruby it wasn’t social hour.

Once Ruby walked away, Emma picked up her plate and pushed a handful or two of fries on to Cyrus’ plate, smirking at the look on his face. He looked baffled and annoyed all in one. She set her’s back down, and jokingly pointed at him. “No dessert if you don’t finish your lunch young man,” she joked, to which he rolled his eyes.

“I’m older than you,” he argued, although it was half hearted in effort.

Emma shrugged, picking up her burger and taking a bite before answering. “Yeah well, you still look younger than I do so hey. And I can’t eat all this anyway, don’t look at me like that, no I can’t!”

“If you insist,” Cyrus answered, shaking his head. Humans certainly were strange. “I’m sure I’ve seen you eat more than that before.”

“Hey now, you don’t go around talking to ladies like that, what would Alice say?”

Cyrus laughed, he wouldn’t dream of saying something like that to Alice, she would find something he had a habit of doing that annoyed her and bring it up to get at him. “Well, you do have an active job, chasing people around town, so I guess it makes sense.”

Emma grinned. “That’s better genie.”

They fell silent as they ate, in that strange yet amiable silence which only friends could find comfortable. There was the odd question here and there, mainly of Emma asking Cyrus about other mythical creatures. Her questions amused him, she assumed he had traveled so extensively he must’ve seen mermaids and the likes, in truth he’d been locked away and had seen nothing. But he’d heard tales.

“I notice you haven’t asked about fairies,” he observed, setting his empty mug back down. This certainly was a random and strange conversation. Oddly enough, he was rather enjoying it.

Emma shrugged as she picked up her napkin. “We’ve got fairies here, and they’re nuns. So they can’t be all that bad.”

Cyrus laughed. “If lore is anything to go by, I would be careful which fairy you decide to trust. They’re known for stealing babies, murdering children over nothing more than a slight, seducing men for their own means and enslaving people as well. I can’t say any of those are a desirable outcome or way to spend your life.”

Emma’s eyes went wide at that admission; those sweet fairies could do all that? “You’re kidding, right? I mean, they’re so nice, surely they can’t be as awful as in those tales.” This was a little unbelievable, just about as much as everything else in Storybrooke.

“You can take it or leave it, maybe not all fairies can be classified with such traits as genies have been called evil spirits as well and will use a master’s words in the most literal sense to grant their wish,” Cyrus said, shrugging. He had never done that...well, once. After that little bit of amusement he’d been left in his bottle for a decade, he was fairly certain that was some form of punishment for his rather malicious tricks.

He wasn’t proud of that, but it had been hard going from people who had treated him like a person back to a piece of property.

“Well, I’m pretty sure you’re a good person so I’m not too worried about you. Not to mention I don’t have any wishes for you to warp on me that might turn me into a frog, or worse. Pretty sure I wouldn’t like that, there is someone in this town that’s been one,” Emma babbled, just before flagging Ruby down to order dessert.

Cyrus began to protest but Emma silenced him. “You’re having dessert, I’m not eating a piece of chocolate cake alone so you have to have one too,” she informed him, then adding to Ruby to top it with whip cream and cinnamon. She really, really liked whip cream and cinnamon.

“How do you handle it though?” she asked, turning her attention back to her lunch companion.

Cyrus looked at her oddly, not sure what she meant. He was certainly she had a fair idea on how to cope with loneliness. “The magic, how do you handle it? I mean, yeah, that whole genie magic you can’t use for yourself, but now that you know about the dark magic how can you handle it? You did get to use it for a little while, that had to be a bit of a thrill.”

“It was an experience to have magic I could use for myself, frightening at the same time. I could have killed Jafar, with a simple flick of my wrist and I actually enjoyed the idea of it. Although having magic at my disposal was a bit of a thrill, I hope to never feel it again. That sort of dark magic should never be used by anyone, it defies all the laws of magic, I don’t understand how, but it does,” Cyrus said, his tone rather flat.

Emma nodded, she could understand. After the initial shock of learning she had magic wore off, she’d actually wondered what she could do with it. She’d been hurt in the past, by more people then she could remember. Some were slights of little to no consequence, but some were unforgettable and the type more people entertained the concept of revenge for.

A small part of her had longed to ask Rumpel to teach her. To show her how to wield her magic to the height of its potential. And an even smaller part of her had entertained the idea of asking to learn how to take a person’s heart from their chest. Like any other person, she was resentful and had a few people she would love to make suffer. Every breathing person was the same, even the mythical ones if Cyrus’ confession was anything to go by.

“Magic seems to be a double edged sword, even if you want to use the darker spectrum of it for good it will just end up twisted,” Emma mused, stabbing her piece of cake with a fork shortly after it was placed in front of her.

Cyrus nodded, he wondered if he could use his other magic in a way that would benefit others, but he knew in the long run it would all end up twisted. Even the most innocent wish he’d granted would have some unfortunate cost, which had always troubled him. He wondered shortly after he learned of his forgotten past if that was why all the wishes he’d granted had turned out poorly in one way or another, but after speaking with Sidney he’d discovered that wasn’t the case.

Magic was tricky, and would always find a way to do what it wanted in the long run, and there was no telling what exactly it would do. It may backfire and cause a ripple effect of destruction, or it might be more of a whisper that slowly destroys the happiness of the person using it. There was no way to tell.

“I guess I shouldn’t use magic then,” Emma mused.

“I wouldn’t say that, just be careful. Learn to control it first, as I can sense you aren’t skilled with what power you have, but don’t use it on a whim once you know how to control it. There will always be a cost, no matter what you do, but so long as you have the best intentions the cost should be small,” he told her. “Don’t be afraid of the power you have, just use it wisely. Magic is a gift that many long to have, and if you have it you should learn how to control it.”

Emma grinned, shaking her head. “You know, you really are a little ray of sunshine. But thanks, I kinda needed that.”

Cyrus laughed. “I’m always glad to be of service.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a random one shot. I swear there is another chapter story coming in this AU, just the other chapter story is taking up a lot of time and real life happened.
> 
> As well, I've done some reading on mythology for various mythical beings, I know I read somewhere that genies don't eat (and somewhere else what they do and lets not go there), I would say where I read it but its been quite awhile, not sure if it was a book or online now. And the stuff about fairies is part of lore as well. Which amused me to no end.


End file.
